by Pegaz
Not aware that he was smiling a little, John walked down to where Amanda was.
The teleport room was at the back of the village, so when people noticed him walking away from it, they realised he wasn’t a mortal. Nobody in the village could recognise John; try as they might, his changes were too much for them. Murmurs carried through crowds as he, a stranger, made his way to Amanda’s house, where she was cultivating.
John arrived at his destination and knocked on the door. He waited for Amanda to answer it. When the door creaked open, he saw her face staring blankly at him.
“Who are you supposed to be?”
“Ah.” John smiled. “You don’t remember me?”
She only shook her head.
“Well… Eighteen years ago, you wrote a letter to the sect master about me. I came from the North Kingdom.” John could see the familiarity creep back into her eyes as he spoke. “Err, I don’t have to tell you about my other identity for you to remember me, right?”
Amanda’s mouth went loose as it threatened to drop to the floor.
Within moments, John was inside of her home and she was bustling about to welcome him. The house was a simple wooden bungalow with a straw roof. It had one bedroom, a kitchen, and an area for the table with a circular patch of grass in the middle.
John remembered when he had to absorb Life Power from the earth inside the house his master gave him. If he couldn’t absorb Life Power from Life Crystals and had to sit down while connected to the earth like normal cultivators, then he would have died of boredom by this point.
John sat down on a chair that Amanda offered him and they talked. John checked her out with his Immortal Eye, too.
Amanda Burch
Rank: 4
Level: 9
Sin: 19
Oh, she’s levelled up a few times in the 18 years since I’ve left. She doesn’t have her memory manipulated either. That’s reasonable since she isn’t earning Life Stones by assassinating people. Jeremy wouldn’t have bothered with her.
“That brings me to another point.” John smiled as the two conversed casually. “I’ve got a cultivation technique I would like to give you. You’re on the verge of breaking through to Rank 5 soon, right? I can feel the strength coming from your Life Power. You told me about the first four ranks on the road of immortality but didn’t know about the ranks beyond that. I can tell you all about it now. This is to repay you for what you did for me. That letter you wrote to the sect master made him take me in as his disciple, which would never have happened without your actions.”
John pulled out a parchment and wrote down a good absorbing technique he’d read about inside the Sword Sect, along with the matching breathing technique. Then he told her about all the ranks, levels, and requirements needed for everything up to Rank 9 Level 9. Her eyes were completely alight with the desire to learn, and John felt their roles had completely reversed in all these years. He was happy to offer her more.
Taking out a few Grade 9 Life Stones, he told her to use these to cultivate along with the Life Power from the earth. Amanda didn’t know what grade it was, but she knew it was higher than the Grade 2 she normally used. She accepted it, thanking John most sincerely.
When the gift-giving was done, John then told her about what had happened inside the sect—what had happened to his beloved master. He told her that he was now the new sect master, but that it wasn’t official until next year at the latest. It had to stay a secret between the two of them, and by the look on her face, John knew that it would stay as such.
He offered Amanda a different job inside the sect if she wanted it. She could take the job when he was the new sect master. After a few minutes considering his offer, she refused the new job; the villagers were her family. John respected her decision.
After more than an hour of chatting and catching up, Amanda finally asked something a bit more shocking than John was prepared for.
“Are you here to deal with the new Sider that showed up a few years ago?”
Chapter 17
Past Scheme Rumour
John blanked out for a minute, blinking in confusion.
“There’s a new Sider on this planet? Since when?”
“What?” Amanda knitted her brows, a frown crossing her face. “You mean you haven’t read my report? I reported that there was a new Sider in the North Kingdom about eight years ago. If you haven’t read the report, then what are you doing back here?”
“Report…” John was flabbergasted. “Sect Master Jamie died eight years ago. The sect was in turmoil and I was on a long distance mission, too. I don’t know what happened to your report, but I know I haven’t read it. How did you hear about the Sider?”
“There was a person who came here to become an immortal.” She smiled with a twinkle in her eye. “But this person tried to rob and kill a villager and died by my hands. Before that, though, he told us about the new Sider. About a year ago, this very Sider came to the village to become an immortal, too, but he came too late. He was almost twenty-two years old, past the aging crystal mark.”
John gulped, brain racing. If the Sider came here a year ago, then he would be twenty-two or twenty-three by now. He must have come to this world after seven years in the mortal world and either found out about immortality too late or wasn’t strong enough to get here in time.
I think I’ll go meet the new Sider. I can “force” it for him to become immortal with 0% death rate now, and when the new skill is done, I can use the memory manipulation technique on him if needed.
Whatever system the new Sider had, John knew this new Sider could share his skills with him in return for giving him immortality. If the new system was really useful, John could offer the peak body skill, too.
“Do you know where the Sider is?”
“I do.” She nodded. “He’s staying with the new king of the North.”
“New king?”
“Yes, he was crowned almost eighteen years ago.”
18 years for Amanda is still considered new? I’ve still got the mindset of a mortal, haha. Oh well, in the cultivation world, I’m still a baby who should only be learning how to walk right now.
I killed the old king 18 years ago but didn’t care or follow what happened after that. I also killed his son, the third prince. If it’s like back on Earth, the oldest son would then inherit the crown. I never saw the eldest son of the old king.
John smiled back at Amanda.
“I’ll head over to check the Sider out.” He stood up from his comfy seat. “When he visited this village, though, were you going to kill him or let him become an immortal? I trust your judgment of people.”
“Hmn… “ Amanda thought for a minute before speaking. “The only thing he did when he was here was ask question after question. Even when he found out that he couldn’t become an immortal, he still asked about everything. If I didn’t know he was a mortal, then I would have suspected he was a spy from another sect. But other than that, nothing happened. Poor guy couldn’t even take on an SSS Rank monster.”
“I see…” John knitted his brows. “What would you have done if he was under twenty-one then? I remember the rule is that the mortals needed to kill an SSS Rank monster with you as a witness to gain the right to touch the test age crystal. Any exceptions for Siders?”
“I would’ve just followed the rules of the sect.” Amanda shrugged her shoulders. “I might have sent a report to the sect master and hoped to receive a reply before the Sider turned twenty-one, but nothing too special.”
“You’re not only saying that because I’m the next sect master, are you?” John chuckled.
Before Amanda could reply John bid his farewell, detailing his plan to head to the North Kingdom. Amanda thanked John again for all the gifts as she walked John out. After saying goodbye for the last time, John walked north.
Going through the areas with Rank SSS monsters running about, John half expected to be attacked by them. After an hour of casually walking through their territo
ries, nothing had happened.
John smiled. Clever monsters, they can tell they will die if they attack me.
He walked out of the forest and saw the entrance to the capital. John was reminiscing a little as this was the place he first walked towards immortality. Before this point, it was levelling the skills to get to the peak body needed as the foundation to walk the immortality road. As he walked along, his Scan picked up the state of the capital.
Near the immortals’ area he was closest to were all the high-end houses. The Rank SS or higher adventurers lived here as a deterrent to the monsters attacking. They made the houses of bricks with what looked like cement between them, but John couldn’t be sure since the colour was a bit different. The houses were much sturdier than those made of wood and straw, though.
Then there were the roads. They weren’t the usual tarmac colour but brown. There were people sweeping the streets all over the place, keeping them clean. It was something John had never seen before.
The further away from the immortals’ area John’s Scan detected, the worse the houses became. It was only five miles away that the houses were built using treated wood nailed together to form a house. The brown tarmac road ended at the 5-mile mark into the capital, too, and a normal coloured tarmac replaced it. Along the old tarmac were houses made of untreated wood nailed together at different angles, forming holes that could not block the wind. John soon found what he assumed to be the slums of the capital. While he was here last time, he spent all his time in the library and didn’t have the Scan either.
He was curious to know what the difference between the new and old tarmac was. He wondered if the new Sider was responsible for its use. There had to be some practical use for it, or else the king wouldn’t have bothered replacing the old tarmac. His mind buzzed with possibilities.
John walked into a tavern near the city centre and sat down at a table. Picking up a menu, he ordered a few things and ate them while he listened for information.
He heard plenty of rumours but one stuck with him.
Word was that almost twenty years ago, deceased King Henry IV used the Sider that went to the immortal area in a scheme to become king. His son boasted about it when he got drunk at his father’s funeral a week ago.
I wonder if this is true… If he used me to gain the throne, I’ve got to applaud him for a brilliant scheme. The only weakness was his buffoon of a son. I was younger and more naive back then, only focused on my one goal. People call that tunnel vision, right? I had a massive determination to get the peak body before becoming immortal, so I wouldn’t notice any kind of scheme against me.
Though I’ve got to admit, even today I’m still young and still learning when compared to other cultivators. But if anyone tries to use me now, they can find out how easy it is for me to destroy an entire kingdom.
John couldn’t find out anything else about this, but he found out the coronation of the king was the following day. That was the reason the capital was being swept clean and the hotels were fully booked. People from the South and the East Kingdom were here for the coronation, but the West kingdom was still at odds with them so they didn’t attend.
John sat inside the tavern part of the building for hours while he drank a few beers, but he didn’t hear about any more interesting rumours. It was two hours before closing time in the tavern and it was still full to capacity, not one seat was available.
At one point, a group of adventurers came inside the tavern and found it full. Seeing that nobody was leaving, they saw John sitting alone in the corner seat. The corner seat was enough for their group of four people to sit, so they went over towards him.
Chapter 18
It’s Him… Again?!
John noticed the four people enter the place and could guess what they were thinking.
Instead of provoking them, he figured he could avoid the conflict altogether. He was finished with his drink and couldn’t get any more information from this place, so it didn’t really make much of a difference. John stood up before the four people arrived and made his way to the exit. When he passed the four people, he smiled and nodded.
“Our reputation must have reached his ears for him to get scared before we even remove him ourselves.”
The adventurer’s words were like a death sentence.
John had his right hand on the door when he heard the mocking laughter from across the tavern. He turned his head around to the left and cast a blood-curdling glare at them. Everybody in the tavern quietened down and took their seats for the show.
“Do not mistake my actions as cowardice.” John’s words had an icy bite to them. “If you’d like, I could come over and remove you from the seat and we can try the whole thing over again.”
He stared at them with his left eye and used his Immortal Eye on them. They were all mortals like John thought. The group saw him staring at them and they each lowered their heads.
“Thought so.”
With that, John walked out of the tavern.
With his Scan, John found the tallest building and lied down on the roof. He had no other plans than to wait for the coronation. He still didn’t even know what the person being crowned even looked like, but he would find out soon enough. John closed his eyes and got some sleep to pass the time.
On the following morning, he woke at eight o’clock. With his Scan, he could see people standing near the palace, waiting for the coronation to start.
He was almost five miles away and his Scan couldn’t detect much beyond the palace gates, but from what he could see of the palace, it had shiny and smooth walls. The whole place was coloured black and white with a hint of red. It seemed as if whoever built it had merely carved it from a big rock; there was nothing like cement, nails, or anything used to hold it all together. It was one big, unbroken piece standing about two stories high with windows and wooden frames.
In front of the palace doors were stairs that led to the street and along that path, someone had placed down a red carpet with gold patterns at the edges. At the bottom of the stairs was an open area. They could fit thousands of people in this area if they were standing.
In England, they crown royal members who become king or queen inside a church. But there is no religion I’ve come across in this universe. I’m interested to see the crowning ceremony and even the prince’s face.
While scanning, John recognised a few faces he had seen back when he was mortal. Among them were the likes of SSS Ranked Rachael and David. They hadn’t changed much since he last saw them eighteen years ago. David had gotten a little pudgy with grey hair showing, and Rachael had a few wrinkles and grey hairs, too. They were standing inside the palace with fifteen other people; John thought the new king might be among those people. Everybody in the group was wearing armour and weapons, so they must have been guards.
What time does the coronation start, anyway? I only heard it’s today, but it could start an hour from now or eight hours from now.
And so, John lay there waiting, rather than move closer to the palace.
At noon sharp, the palace doors sprung open with Rachael on the left and David on the right. The two walked down the steps as the ceremony began, not walking on the red carpet. Seven other men and women followed them on each side, walking off the carpet, too. On each side, the eight men and women turned to face the carpet and did a military salute.
John was in for the shock of his life.
The one person he didn’t expect to even be there was walking on the red carpet down the stairs between the sixteen people. He was wearing a shiny adventurers armour, too. John saw him with the people inside the palace a few hours ago but assumed he was a guard. The man, who was even larger than Jeremy now, was the chubby guy he met in the training course in Newbie Town. John recalled meeting him again outside the cave of Tim McNeil’s after it collapsed.
That guy was royalty? I remember he had a bodyguard back then, which makes sense now. I didn’t see the face of the bodyguard, wonder if he or she is one
of the people on the palace steps?
John watched the coronation with interest now. First, the prince walked down the steps and sat inside an open top carriage which took him around the capital for an hour. The man kept waving to the people on the streets until the carriage brought him back to the palace.
When the carriage arrived back at the palace, the crowd swarmed to get as close as possible. There were guards lined up to keep the crowd contained. The cheering crowd covered the entire area in front of the palace. An old man walked out of the palace with a rolled up parchment, handed it to David who then waited for the crowd to become silent. When all was calm, David then shouted that the kings of the past wrote what someone needed to become a great king.
The actual parchment had over a hundred different requirements but internally John narrowed the list down to the important parts. He took note.
1. Must reach at least S rank in the Adventurers Guild, because the king should be the first person to protect the kingdom.
2. Have a high education, for a king without knowledge and wisdom will bring ruin.
3. Fair judgement, for the common people are your subjects and also your superiors.
4. An open mind, because if you want everybody to do only what you do, then the kingdom will not grow.
After the 105th item on the list, David handed the parchment to the prince. The prince took it and placed it inside his bag, then waited for the crown. A young man in his early twenties came out with the crown on top of a red cushion that he carried with both hands as he walked towards the new king. John could only see the colour with his Scan, so he assumed it was made of gold with quite a few gems embedded inside of it.
But John was more interested in the man who brought the crown to the prince. Early twenties and in close countenance with the new king, John wondered if this was the new Sider. He couldn’t be 100% certain without attacking the man, though. Even if he attacked the man, John was too strong for his target’s system to block it.